Blogging & Videos on Inspiration, "Doing" and Travel

Menu

Tag Archives: 101in365

Our previous post about how to make a more awesome you we talked about the 101in365 challenge. 101in365 is a great website to get you motivated to go out and achieve your goals by helping you define and track 101 goals to complete in a year. The idea being small steps to make a big change in you. Today we have an interview with Jenn Vargas founder of 101in365 about how the site came about and her own 101in365 goals.

SOI: What gave you the idea for 101in365?JV: The idea for 101in365 started when my college roommate and I were trying to decide what to do about new years resolutions. We decided we would each make a list of 101 things we wanted to accomplish in the next 365 days. We both tracked our lists on our blogs but it was pretty labor-intensive. A few years later I decided I wanted to try to automate some of it. So I did! And a weekend project just sort of evolved into what it is today!

SOI: What people have inspired you to do achieve your goals?JV: I’m inspired by a pretty broad range of people for all different reasons. I try to learn from everyone (and vice versa!) I meet and just continually try to improve myself!

SOI: Are there any other videos / websites that help motivate you?
JV: It really depends on the goals I’m trying to pursue at any given moment. I actually really enjoy reading through the Explore page on 101in365 or just browsing around to random lists to see what other people want to achieve. It inspires me to go beyond my own list and to motivate others to keep going with theirs!

SOI: What are some of the things on your 101in365 list?
JV: One of my main goals for this year is to start my own company. My other goals range from “just because” type goals (“Start watching I Love Lucy from the very beginning”) to habits I want to develop (“Be more eco-friendly at home”) to pretty typical things (“Lose 15lbs”) to cool aspirational goals like “Meet and have a conversation with one of my heroes”.
My list is here if you’re curious! http://101in365.com/jenn

Many people will tell you that to achieve any goal in life it is about breaking the goal down into small defined steps. I am a great believer in this, if you have a goal however “ridiculous” you think it maybe then to achieve it all you have to do is work out what you need to get it, and break down the steps of how to reach this.

Take the 100 push up challenge. At the beginning it sounds ridiculous to be able to do this if you can only do 10 push ups or less. But with the challenge you build up and make it all the way to 100 using small incremental steps that make you better.

Randy Grayson talks about this concept as “Kaizen”. He talks about an American basketball coach called John Wooden.

Randy says, “If you’re no fan of basketball, you have no idea who this is, but all you need to know is that he was exceedingly successful using the principle of Kaizen. If you would like to know more, check out this website: http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/Wooden.htm. Here’s a little quote for you, “The John Wooden-coached UCLA teams scaled unprecedented heights that no future organization in any sport is likely to approach. Under the masterful guidance of Wooden, the Bruins set all-time records with four perfect 30-0 seasons, 88 consecutive victories, 38 straight NCAA tournament victories, 20 PAC 10 championships, and 10 national championships, including seven in a row.”

When asked what his incredible success was due to, he once replied, “When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts.”

Breaking things down to improve something about yourself can be a very powerful tool in helping motivate yourself to achieve your goals. In this vein is the superb website 101in365. It is a website created by Jenn Vargas, a self confessed compulsive list writer, with the idea of making a “More Awesome You” by defining 101 steps, small or large to complete in 365 days. It is a great challenge and one which will give you a great sense of accomplishment when stuck to.

The aim of 101in365 is to help you develop, track, and accomplish your goals in 365 days or less. You also have the huge support of the community on the site, which as anyone knows having others to egg you on and being around inspiring people helps inspire and motivate you. So it is time to apply some Kaizen and achieve what you want in life this year, starting today.